Would you buy milk from a guy who's unshorn and unshaven, red-eyed from lack of sleep, and used to live in Washington, D.C.? That's the least of the problems that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa presents in "Dark Matters," which opened last night in a Stray Dog Theatre production at Tower Grove Abbey, to run through May 21.
It's a wacky story about little green–and blue and gray–men who come from other galaxies, but who hang out in a rural Virginia roadside bar (we used to call them road houses) where they appear to be truck drivers and other traveling men. Some of them leave the bar in the company of Bridget (Sarah Cannon). Exactly who is she?
Aguirre-Sacasa has been a writer on the HBO series, "Big Love," and he's the play doctor working to resuscitate "Spiderman." He also is a big-time writer of comic books about super-heroes. This is one of his early works, first produced off-Broadway five years ago.
The Clearys, Michael (David Wassilak) and Bridget, and their 16-year-old son, Jeremy (Tyler Whiteman) moved to the Virginia hamlet about six months earlier after a problem in their Washington digs. It's a problem, however, that has nothing to do with the plot and little to do with the play except to provide a very juicy scene for Cannon that she squeezes to a fare-thee-well. A big problem with believability involves Whiteman, who looks well past 16, and as a result, scenes between him and Cannon, as his mother, are difficult to take seriously. Michael and Bridget are both writers; he drives the milk truck as a day job.
Wassilak, as usual, does well as the untrustworthy, sinister, frightening type, and John Reidy is excellent as the local sheriff, who starts out as a bumpkin but who shades the character so well as the play goes on that he becomes extremely impressive.
Director Justin Been builds tension well, but his pacing, especially in the first act, is far too leisurely. He also designed the set, simple but sufficient.
Dark Matters, produced by Stray Dog Theatre at Tower Grove Abbey, runs through May 21
—Joe